Reserve prices, vendor bids and underquoting: how Victorian auctions actually work

For auctions held on and from 16 October 2026, the reserve price stops being a secret.

If you have stood on a nature strip in Cranbourne East wondering what the owner will actually accept, that guessing game is over for auctions from that date on. Victoria rewrote the price information agents owe you, and the reserve is the biggest piece of it.

What changed on 16 October 2026

The new requirements commence on 1 October 2026 and apply to auctions and fixed-date sales held on and from 16 October 2026, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria. CAV's worked example: for an auction on 16 October 2026, the reserve would need to have been disclosed by 9 October 2026.

The change everyone will notice is the reserve. Agents must publish the seller's reserve price at least 7 days before an auction or fixed-date sale, as a single dollar amount. CAV is explicit that it must be given "without words or symbols such as 'from', 'over', '+' or 'starting at'".

If the reserve has not been published 7 days out, the auction cannot go ahead, and penalties apply.

The Statement of Information is replaced by a new document, the Property Price Statement. It has to set out key features of the property being sold and of each comparable property used, and CAV says it "must be displayed prominently in online advertising, not right at the bottom of the listing".

Two more changes land the same day. Agents must update the Property Price Statement with the sold price 7 days after the sale becomes unconditional, then keep it public for at least 18 months unless an exemption is granted. An agent who cannot find three comparable properties must identify the one or two they did find, rather than just noting that fewer than three exist.

The reforms come from the Consumer Legislation Amendment Bill 2026, introduced on 4 June 2026, which amends the Estate Agents Act 1980 and the Sale of Land Act 1962 among others to strengthen price protections for buyers.

Here is the full sequence.

Date	What happens
1 October 2026	Reserve price publication, the Property Price Statement, sold price publication and the comparable property change commence
16 October 2026	Those changes apply to auctions and fixed-date sales held on and from this day
1 June 2027	Section 32 statement available within 14 days of advertising a private sale, or at least 14 days before an auction or fixed-date sale
1 July 2027	Agents must not take commission directly from a deposit released before settlement or rescission
1 December 2027	Agents must give sold price information to the Director of Consumer Affairs Victoria, unless an exemption is granted

All from Consumer Affairs Victoria.

The 1 June 2027 section 32 change matters more than it looks. Two weeks with the vendor statement, instead of a few days, is the difference between a proper read and a rushed one.

What a reserve price is, and what it is not

A reserve is the lowest price the seller will accept on the day. Consumer Affairs Victoria calls it "the lowest price at which you are willing to sell your property", the auction equivalent of an asking price in a private sale.

For auctions before 16 October 2026, the seller can keep it private: CAV's selling by auction guidance tells them "you do not have to advertise a reserve price or advise the agent of your asking price". CAV has not published guidance on whether a published reserve can move once it is out there, so ask the agent rather than assume.

The rules that apply to every auction

Whatever the date, the Statement of Information is doing the work alongside the reserve rules. An agent must prepare one for every residential property they are engaged to sell, whether or not it is advertised. Ask for a copy and it has to reach you within 2 business days, and it must also be displayed at every open for inspection and with the online listing.

Consumer Affairs Victoria requires it to contain:

1. An indicative selling price. This can be a single figure, or a range of no more than 10%.
2. The three most comparable sales, with address, date of sale and price, or a statement explaining why fewer than three exist.
3. The median house or unit price for the suburb, covering a period of between 3 and 12 months, and no more than 6 months old.

Qualifying words are not allowed in the advertised price. No "offers above", no "from", no plus sign.

What counts as a comparable sale

This is where a Statement of Information quietly tells you a lot. Comparables have to be similar in standard and condition, and close in distance and time.

Location	Sold within	Distance
Melbourne metropolitan area	Last 6 months	2 kilometres
Outside metropolitan Melbourne	Last 18 months	5 kilometres

Across the Casey corridor, expect the metropolitan test, so a comparable pulled from 4 kilometres away is worth querying. Agents must use all the sales data they hold, including undisclosed sales, and a confidentiality agreement is not an excuse.

What underquoting actually means

Underquoting is narrower than most buyers think, and knowing the definition makes you harder to mislead. According to Consumer Affairs Victoria, an agent underquotes when they advertise or quote a price less than any one of these:

• the seller's reserve price or asking price
• a written offer the seller has already rejected
• the agent's own current estimated selling price

A house selling for far more than the quoted range is not, on its own, proof of underquoting. Three bidders who all want the same place in Clyde North can push a price past what any honest appraisal predicted. That is a hot auction, not a breach.

The benchmarks move, though. If the agent revises their estimate upward, or the seller rejects a written offer above the quoted range, the advertised price and the Statement of Information must be updated, and online advertising corrected within one business day.

The penalty is real. Consumer Affairs Victoria puts it at "more than $48,842 (240 penalty units) and forfeiting of their commission". Read the penalty units, not the dollar figure: a penalty unit rose to $209.10 on 1 July 2026, so CAV's published amount reflects an earlier year.

If you think you have been underquoted, the complaint goes to Consumer Affairs Victoria. Keep the Statement of Information, the advertisement, the dates and any emails. A conveyancer cannot run that complaint for you: it is a regulatory matter, and if it becomes a dispute you want a solicitor.

Vendor bids

A vendor bid is a bid made on the seller's behalf to lift the price toward the reserve. It is legal in Victoria, and not a trick, provided the rules are followed. The main one: a vendor bid can only be made by the auctioneer, and "must be announced by the auctioneer when the bid is made".

The protection is disclosure rather than quantity. CAV does not publish a maximum number of vendor bids, so do not assume there is one. What you can check is that the arrangements for vendor and co-owner bids are announced at the start of the auction, and that the auction rules have been on display for at least 30 minutes beforehand.

Dummy bidding is the illegal version. It is an offence for an auctioneer to make or accept fictitious bids, or to knowingly accept a bid by or for the seller outside the vendor and co-owner rules.

Co-owners have their own carve-out. Where one co-owner wants to buy the other out, they can bid from the crowd or through a representative, but never through the auctioneer.

So listen for the word "vendor". It tells you how thin the competition is.

Passed in, and what happens next

If the bidding stops below the reserve, the property is passed in. It has not sold. The highest bidder gets the first right to negotiate with the seller, usually in the agent's car straight afterwards.

Here is the detail most buyers miss. A property can be passed in on a vendor bid, meaning the last bid came from the auctioneer and no real buyer went that high. Where that happens, CAV says the agent cannot quote the passed-in amount in later advertising without disclosing it was a vendor bid.

So after a pass-in, ask whether the last bid was a vendor bid before you name a figure.

Why the contract gets read before the auction

There is no cooling-off period when you buy at auction. None. Consumer Affairs Victoria also notes that buying within three clear business days before a scheduled auction strips the cooling-off rights you would have had in a private sale. The moment the hammer falls you are bound, and anything unwelcome in the contract or section 32 is yours.

So the work happens beforehand. We read the contract and vendor statement, check the title, look at what the planning overlays or owners corporation are doing, and tell you what you would be signing. Our contract and section 32 review runs on auction timing rather than ours, and our property purchase conveyancing carries it through to settlement if you buy. We do plenty of that around Cranbourne and the growth suburbs.

Questions buyers ask

Does the new rule mean I will know the reserve before I bid?

Yes, for auctions held on and from 16 October 2026. The agent must publish the seller's reserve at least 7 days out, as a single dollar figure with no qualifying words. For auctions held before that day, the seller can keep it private.

Can the auctioneer keep making vendor bids until the reserve is reached?

Consumer Affairs Victoria does not publish a maximum, so plan on the basis that there may not be one. The rules do require that only the auctioneer makes a vendor bid, and that each one is announced as it happens. If they are not being announced, report it to Consumer Affairs Victoria.

The property sold for $80,000 above the range. Was that underquoting?

Not necessarily. Underquoting is measured against the reserve, the asking price, a rejected written offer or the agent's own estimate, not the eventual sale price. Competition between bidders regularly takes a result past any reasonable appraisal.

When do I get the section 32 for an auction property?

It has to be given to you before you sign, which at auction means asking the agent well before the day. From 1 June 2027 it must be available at least 14 days before an auction or fixed-date sale. Ask as soon as you are seriously interested, then send it to us.

Bidding this spring? Send us the contract first

Auction season in Cranbourne runs hard through October and November, and the reserve rules land in the middle of it. If you have a property in mind, send us the contract and section 32 before it goes under the hammer.

Our office is at Level 1, 105A High Street, Cranbourne, open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and available on weekends by appointment. Auctions run on Saturdays, so if you need us then, call. Conveyancing here runs through PEXA, so we can act for you anywhere in Victoria, though most of our work sits between Lynbrook and Pakenham.

Ask us for a quote or get in touch. We make room for auction properties, because those deadlines do not move.

This article is general information about Victorian conveyancing and is not legal advice for your particular transaction. Speak to us about your specific circumstances.